A Slight Oversight
by nukeme
Summary: In the wake of the resonance cascade, a small group desperately tries to reach the surface and escape.
1. Chapter 1

'BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!'

The alarm beside Toms head beeped impatiently at him, the heap on the bed that was Tom stirred slightly. He was an average height man with a lean build and short black hair with a decent bed of stubble on his face, his limbs seemed to have become twisted in the blanket during the night.

"Nnnggghhh" Tom slowly twisted around to face the alarm clock which read, '7.30' in large red letters. He kept staring at it until the display changed to '7.31' and then rolled back over onto his back, sighing and reaching over to what he hoped was the snooze button. The beeping stopped and Tom slowly slipped back into his deep sleep.

Tom woke up not having moved an inch from his prior position, he rubbed his forehead and looked over to his alarm clock.

'9.43'

"SHIT!" He didn't hit the snooze button after all. Tom vaulted out of bed, but was tripped up in the blanket which was wrapped around his legs. Tom struggled back to his feet whilst wrestling the blanket and ran towards the bathroom, thanking god for making him lazy enough to sleep with his work pants on. He grabbed the security team shirt which lay on the bathroom floor and quickly threw it on not bothering to button it up.

Tom grabbed the toothpaste tube from the counter and squeezed with all his might to both open the lid and deposit a sizable amount of toothpaste into his mouth. Tom grabbed his toothbrush on the way out and jammed it into his mouth, violently brushing any surface he could find.

He ran over to the kitchen and spit the toothbrush out into the sink, and then flung open the pantry doors, one of them broke from the force and crashed to the ground.

"SHIT!" Tom exclaimed, muffled by the toothpaste still present in his mouth.

Quickly scanning the contents of the pantry he ripped into a loaf of sliced bread grabbing 2 or 3 pieces and ferociously opened a jar of strawberry jam, dipping all the bread into it in one go. He shoved it in his mouth as he ran for the door.

Tom was halfway down the hallway of the dormitory facility before he remembered his door, he looked back with bread, jam, and toothpaste sticking out of his mouth and saw that his door was wide open.

"Fuck it, I don't have anything worth stealing" he thought to himself and continued down the hall.

* * *

Tom sprinted out onto the station platform where a tram was awaiting, the doors began to close just as he got close.

He let out a muffled cry and dived towards the closing door, making just in time, but then he felt a painful pressure on his ankle, he looked back and saw that his foot was stuck in the door, the automatic sliding door retreated a few inches and tried to close again.

"MMNNNGGGHHH!" was the sound of pain that Tom created with his still full mouth. The door opened slightly and closed again. "MMNNNNGGGHHHH!" the door opened again and tom pulled his foot out just as it began to close, and the tram started moving.

Tom lay on the floor for a few seconds and then calmly got up and brushed himself down, he then looked towards the other end of the tram to an extremely startled scientist, which was a reasonable state considering he had just seen a man with a mouth exploding with bread, jam, and some white foamy substance in an unbuttoned shirt, with no shoes make a heroic dive through a closing tram door. "Shit!" Tom thought to himself, he had forgotten his shoes.

* * *

_Note:_ Hi everyone, I'd just like to mention that this is my first ever bit of fan fiction and as you may be able to tell it is based in half life 1.

I thought that before I got to the action I should start by introducing my characters one by

one, so meet Tom, part of the prestigious blue-shift security force. The whole being late for work scenario is just a way for me to show to you how Tom acts in stressful situations and introduce him in an amusing way.

I don't really know how often I will be updating this, but I will try to update as often as I can without stressing myself too much.

Thanks for reading and I look forward to feedback.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is irresponsible!" Ian exclaimed to Administrator Breen, while Breen sat calmly at his desk. Ian was wore a white lab coat with a black mesa logo on it, old age was beginning to creep up on him and he had a head full of graying hair. "You don't even care about the consequences do you Breen?"

"Ian, as one of the most experienced men in this field your opinion is highly respected, but I can assure you you're just being paranoid, there is no danger."

"No danger? I don't know how you can sit there and say that, you know just as well as me that the possibilities of a resonance cascade are very real. I'm sure I don't have to remind you of what happened 6 years ago."

"That incident was a slight oversight, anyway, our security force responded very efficiently, and with minimum casualties."

"Minimum casualties? People died Breen! It doesn't matter if it was one or two or fifty, there are people dead because of the resonance cascade that YOU let happen. And I don't think I have to tell you what the effects of a resonance cascade would be with a sample this pure, you could be putting the entire facility in danger."

"Ian, I assure you that I understand what is at risk if a resonance cascade DOES occur, but even you must agree that the chances are very low, and with the new safety systems we've installed I'd go as far as to say that a resonance cascade is not even possible anymore."

"And what if it DOES happen? Do you expect the blue shift to be able to secure the ENTIRE facility?"

"The Black Mesa task force is on standby, in the unlikely event of a resonance cascade they will be able to respond within 15 minutes."

Ian twitched, he hated the military, each and every time he had been on the forefront of a scientific breakthrough the military had stepped in and tried to turn it into a weapon, usually they succeeded.

"So you're a military man now Breen, is that it? Are you going to hide behind your grunts when this whole facility goes to hell? Maybe afterwards you'll even award some of them medals."

Breen shot to his feet knocking his chair down to the floor, he had taken all he could handle.

"Ian, I'm sure you would agree with me that I have taken a lot from you, just because you're an experienced scientist it does not mean that you have the right to consistently question everything I do, and THEN try to insult me. The experiment goes on as planned in exactly…" Breen checked his watch "83 minutes! Now I am taking you out of sector C, feel free to visit the leisure centre as I decide where to assign you, and consider yourself lucky if you don't end up a lab assistant to someone half your age!"

Ian was shocked, he had been working in sector C for almost 13 years "alright Breen, I'll leave, but you had better be prepared for the consequences of your actions."

* * *

_Note:_ for some reason I hate doing bits with lots of dialogue, it just seems so complicated trying to keep everything neat and still be able to figure out who's talking to who, but of course, you can't make much of a story without character interaction, and after all, I am here to tell a story.

So thanks for reading and I look forward to your feedback.


	3. Chapter 3

James lay down his breakfast tray at the table in the cafeteria. He was a corporal, Corporal James Bolton, or Jimmy to his friends, part of the HECU Black Mesa Task Force, He was tall and strong, but he wasn't awkwardly built, He sat down with the rest of his squad.

"So what do you make of it?" asked Private Walter.

"Of what?" said James.

"We've been on high alert for 3 days now, what do you thinks going on down in Black Mesa?"

"Probably that piss weak administrator got some death threats in the mail."

"You know what I've heard?" said Corporal Lance. "I heard those scientists found a crashed spaceship, with bodies on board, and there worried that the aliens got off some sort of S.O.S. signal before they crashed and we're gunna get attacked."

Everyone at the table laughed, Corporal Lance was a nut for conspiracy theories.

"Would it be these same aliens that abducted you?" said James.

"Could be." Again the table burst into laughter.

"I'm serious guys, think about it, why else would they have us on high alert and not tell us why, if it was terrorists we'd already have their names by now, there's something fishy going on and it's out of this world."

Private Jackson, the machine gunner, stood up and leant forward in a very dramatic manner "Or maybe, get this, they were experimenting with teleportation devices, and they accidently tunneled through to another world, and now they're doing dangerous experiments and they're worried we might get attacked by some alien force we can't even imagine"

He paused for a few seconds for a dramatic effect.

And again the table burst into laughter.

"What the hell is going on here soldiers!? What bullshit are you talking about now!?" Sergeant Wilson had just approached the table.

"We're discussing the recent alert status sir." Replied Private Jackson.

"Oh discussing it are you? Well let me tell you this, they do some crazy dangerous stuff down there, and people who ask questions about it, have an odd habit of occasionally disappearing, so maybe you'd be better off discussing last nights Army versus Marines football game and worry about your job when it comes time to step into your field gear!"

"Yes sir!" replied the whole table in unison.

"Now I don't wanna catch you talking about that crap again! And meet me out at the rifle range in 20 minutes, I wasn't impressed with yesterdays performance, and for some reason I think you're going to be doing a little better today with my new motivation techniques!"

The sergeant cracked his knuckles and walked off.

"I still say it's nothing." Said James.

* * *

_Note:_ Don't worry, only one more introduction until we get to the story. 

Thanks for reading and please review if you think I can improve it.


	4. Chapter 4

"Alright Sarah," said the scientist, "this will be your station for today's experiment, all you need to do is monitor the integrity of data collecting equipment, if it begins to approach dangerous levels use this radio to inform me and my colleagues upstairs in the viewing room."

"Sounds easy." Replied Sarah.

"Well I'm sorry we can't give you anything more hands on, but we weren't expecting a new transfer right now, and the experiment is due to start in 20 minutes."

"It's no problem"

"Well I'd better get up to the viewing room, we're expecting Gordon Freeman any minute."

The scientist left Sarah at her station. She studied the equipment for a few minutes and then checked her appearance off one of the dim reflections of the equipment. She had light brown hair going just past her ears, she adjusted her lab coat which hung off her small body. She fished her glasses out of her pocket and put them on, checking her appearance in the reflection, trying to get every angle and soon got bored again.

Sarah checked her watch, still 13 minutes to go, somehow she thought Sector C would be more exciting.

Pretty short intro this time, anyway, meet Sarah, the final main character in my story. Now to begin the story for real.


	5. Chapter 5

Tom stepped off the tram at the blue shift main sector, he had buttoned up his shirt and managed to clean all the jam and toothpaste from his face, but he still had no shoes. Tom entered the door, and his shift supervisor, West, was right on the other side. West looked Tom over a few times before he spoke.

"What the hell is this Tom?"

"Sorry sir, I was late for work, I Forgot my shoes."

"late for... Dammit Tom, you're the first person I've ever seen show up 12 hours early for his shift."

"12 hours? But..."

"Tom, go back to your unit, get dressed, and learn to read your damn roster."

"Yes sir,"

"And next time you plan to come to work without shoes, don't come at all."

"Yes sir."

* * *

Ian sat in the tram alone, contemplating the results of the experiment, Breen was probably right, in fact Ian himself had helped design the experiment safety measures, a resonance cascade was practically impossible, and now he could lose his job over it. 

The tram stopped at a platform and the door opened, Tom stepped on.

"Hey doc, hey, weren't you supposed to be at that experiment today?"

"You mean that experiment that no one outside Sector C is meant to know about?"

"Oh, yeah, that one, word spreads ya know?"

"Well Breen doesn't want me at Sector C any more, he doesn't like me complaining all the time."

"Ah well, maybe you'll get a job where you don't have to regularly handle toxic waste?"

"Maybe," Ian looked at Tom's bare feet, "Late for work again Tom?"

* * *

"DAMMIT JACKSON! You handle that piece like a three year old! SHOOT LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO HIT SOMEHING!" 

James was lying on the ground firing at targets along with his 5 squad mates. Sergeant Wilson was overseeing them and 'motivating' them.

"JESUS CHRIST BOLTON! HOW THE HELL DID MAKE IT THROUGH BASIC TRAINING!"

"BLIND LUCK SIR!"

"THATS PRETTY DAMN OBVIOUS JUDGING BY YOUR SHOOTING!"

The Sergeant checked his watch.

"CEASE FIRE! Alright, now everyone get down to the barracks and get suited up, I want you ready for action, meet me in the VTOL hangar three in ten minutes, DISMISSED!"

The Sergeant walked off as the squad disarmed their weapons.

"What do you think this is about?" asked Jackson.

"Must be expecting trouble at Black Mesa" Replied lance.

"This has training mission written all over it" Said James.

"Man I hope not, I want some damn action! Bag me an ALIEN!" Said Jackson, punching Lance in the shoulder.

"Shutup!" said Lance, "I'm telling you, you'll GET your alien."

"HOO-HAH" Said Jackson.

"HOO-HAH" Followed the rest of the squad.

* * *

A voice came to life over the radio, "Alright Sarah, we're about to begin the experiment, DO NOT let the equipment become unstable!" 

Sarah got up from the floor where she had seated herself, "I'm ready".

The gauges monitoring the equipment came to life, Sarah watched them carefully, after half a minute a voice came over the radio again.

"How's it looking down there?"

"Everything's stable."

Sarah kept watching the gauges for another half a minute, then the temperature gauge began to unexpectedly and steadily rise.

"Sir, heat's rising slowly, everything else is..." Suddenly sparks erupted from the gauges and they began going crazy, there was also a rumbling in the ground, an alarm started going off.

"SIR! EVERYTHING'S GOING CRAZY DOWN HERE!"

A voice came back over the radio with an alarm in the background and people shouting "SARAH! GET AWAY FROM THE MACHINE!"

The Monitoring device exploded in sparks and flames, Sarah panicked and ran down the hallway to the door. She opened it and saw alarms blaring everywhere, there were several sudden vibrations that caused chunks of the ceiling to fall. Sarah quickly ran to another door, she went through and saw a security guard on the other side.

"Ma'am, don't panic, come with..." Suddenly an explosion breached the wall and ignited the security guard. Sarah screamed and ran past. Running past explosions and collapsing ceilings she eventually reached the entrance to Anomalous Materials. The security guard stationed there was checking the pulse of an unconscious scientist. There were several sudden violent explosion which caused a large piece of ceiling to fall and crush the guard, another explosion blasted through the wall sending a piece of debris flying towards Sarah, it hit her in the head and she fell unconscious.

* * *

"12 hours? Honestly Tom how could you be 12 hours early?" 

"I don't know, misread the roster."

"HAHAHA, god you can always make me laugh Tom."

A slight vibration shoo the tram.

"The hell was that?"

There were several more powerful vibrations, and the tram stopped moving. The tram played a message through its speakers.

"Do not be concerned, there has been a slight problem with..." There was suddenly a very violent vibration that knocked out the tram lights. Emergency lights came on and the voice began again. "Do not be concerned, there hahahahahas been a mechanininininical faiiiiiilure on this rail..." There were several sparks and the voice stopped again.

"What's happening!?"

"A resonance cascade."

"What?"

"We're in a lot of trouble."


	6. Chapter 6

James' squad sat in the back of the VTOL, The Sergeant stood, with one hand grasping a rail on the roof.

"Alright listen up boys, there's some trouble down at black mesa, Scientist bastards playing god again and now we gotta clean up. There's no confirmation of hostile forces yet, however there is extensive damage to the facility and our mission is to assist in evacuation of all black mesa personnel. Our objective is a lab called Anomalous materials in Sector C, all we have to do is go get the scientists and bring them topside."

The radio in the cockpit came to life.

"COMMAND! This is Ground Bravo Three Niner, we are experiencing hostile forces on the surface!"

"This is command, stick to your objectives, eliminate all hostile forces you encounter"

"THEY'RE FLANKING US! WE'RE PINNED DOWN, WE NEED REIN..." the voice was replaced with static. One by one other units began reporting in, also reporting hostile forces.

"Alright men," Said sarge, "Looks like there's gunna be some action..." he paused for a second, "Shoot anything that doesn't look human! Don't give em a chance to fight back!"

"What do you mean not human!?" asked Jackson.

The pilot interrupted. "Sir, We're coming up on the LZ! Get ready!"

"ROGER THAT! LOCK AND LOAD MEN!"

The VTOL began to slow down and descend, but before it could touch the ground there was an explosion on the hull.

"STARBOARD ENGINE OUT! WE'RE GOIN DOWN!"

The VTOL started to fall and was hit by another explosion which caused it to tumble mid air, the VTOL was now dropping nose first. The ground could be seen through the cokpit window getting closer and closer, the pilot hastily undid his seatbelt and tried desperately to climb out of the cockpit, but the VTOL hit the ground nose first, Crushing the pilot and Knocking James unconscious.

* * *

James came to with Private Jackson above him, shaking him by his shoulders.

"James, oh god James you're alive!"

James sat up, "How long was I out?"

"15 minutes...everyone else is dead James." James looked around him, he saw a crashed VTOL, and the bodies of his squad mates which Private Jackson must have pulled out.

"Shit," James grabbed his radio, "Command, this is Charlie Four Zero, we've lost five squad members, there's only two of us left, need evac immediately."

"Negative Charlie, proceed with your mission."

"Command! We need evac NOW!"

"Negative Charlie! You must continue with your mission!"

"DAMMIT!" shouted James. He sat there for a second and then grabbed his rifle from the ground next to him and stood up.

"Are you...are you sure they're dead?" Asked James.

"I'm sure sir."

"Alright then...we continue the mission."

"Sir, we don't know where this sector C is."

"Jesus, don't you pay attention? We studied maps of this place for training, There's a rail station just inside, it'll take us straight to Anomalous Materials."

"How is it that you can memorize every single map you've ever seen?"

"It's a gift."

* * *

James and Private Jackson we're walking down a hallway, there were cracks in the wall and ceiling, but so far no signs of life, or any corpses.

"I can't believe this," Said Jackson, "Whole damn squad, didn't even have a chance to fight back."

"We'll get who did this."

"I know but, shit, they were our friends, now they're dead, cuz of these damn scientists, and now we gotta go save them, I say they bought this on themselves, why should we save them?"

"Because that's our job."

"I didn't sign up for fighting damn aliens or mutants or whatever the hells trying to kill us."

The pair stepped out onto a station platform, there was a tram car already waiting there. James turned to face Private Jackson.

"If you really feel that strongly about this, you can stay here and wait for me to come back, I don't mind, but I'M going down there."

Jackson smiled, "You think I'm gunna let you go alone and get yourself killed? You cant be that stupid Bolton."

James smiled, "Let's go."


	7. Chapter 7

"Okay," said Tom, "Tell me one more time, as simple as you can put it."

Ian sighed. "We were using a machine on a crystal, to try and figure out what the crystal was made of."

"And this crystal was from an alien world?"

"Yes, now the machine was working higher than it's normal capacity, this caused an energy surge which reacted with the unusual properties of the crystal to cause a resonance cascade, which means that enormous amounts of destructive energy are being channelled in through the alien world as well as alien creatures teleporting in due to a temporary disruption of..."

"Woah! Doc! Seriously, high school drop out."

Ian sighed again, "things are...randomly exploding, and we're being attacked by aliens."

"Oooohh okay then."

"At any rate, the incident area most likely will be confined within the facility, we should be safe here, until someone comes to rescue us."

"So do you have a backup plan for this sort of thing?"

"We have a whole military task force dedicated to emergencies like this, things will probably be wrapped up within a few hours, but I hate to think of all the lives that will be lost."

"Well, at least you tried to stop it doc. Speaking of the military, there's a tram coming on the other rail, looks like soldiers."

* * *

"Jackson!" called James, "You alright?"

Private Jackson was leaning out the window of the moving tram, staring down the dark tunnel ahead. He spoke without bothering to face James.

"You know man, the more I think about this shit the more pissed off I get." He turned around, "Damn scientists, playing god, not caring who gets killed, I say we should just nuke the damn facility, kill them all, why should we put ourselves in danger to rescue these bastards?"

"This is what we do."

"I signed up to protect my country, not to KILL MYSELF! SAVING SOME GODDAMN HIGH AND MIGHTY SCIENTIST PRICKS!"

"Settle down man, we knew this was a dangerous job, we got to finish our mission, we've got to finish it for the guys if nothing else."

"Don't worry Bolton, I aint lost it yet, mission first, funerals later, right?"

James stared at the private for a few seconds, "Yeah."

"I'm still pissed though."

"There's a tram car up there," said James pointing down the tunnel. Private Jackson took his gun off his shoulder and removed the safety.

"It's not moving." James and Jackson's tram approached the other stationary one, "Security gaurd and scientist,"

James shouted to the other tram as they approached it, "THIS IS THE ARMY! STAY WHERE YOU ARE! YOU'LL BE RESCUED SOON!"

The trams finally came up alongside the stationary tram and continued to move past, Tom spoke to James and Jackson as their tram moved on.

"Alright, don't you boys take too long, remember we're waiting for you."

The tram moved on for about 5 more minutes before finally stopping at the Anomalous materials station platform. A tone sounded from the tram and the door tried to open but it moved a few inches before sparks started flying from it.

"Through the window." Said James, "come on"

James and Private Jackson climbed out the window of the tram, and approached the blast door, suddenly a loud unusual noise sounded behind them accompanied by a green flash. James and Jackson both spun around bringing their rifles to bear in the direction of the flash, there was a small strange looking 4 legged creature on the ground, it didn't seem to have any eyes.

"What the fu..." before Jackson could finish, the creature shrieked at jumped at his face, digging it's claws into his neck.

"OH GOD! GET IT OFF!" He shouted.

"HOLD STILL."

Jackson let out a painful shout and kept sruggling with the creature.

"DAMMIT HOLD STILL!"

Jackson seemed to register this time and held as still as he could through the pain. James aimed his rifle and killed the creature with one shot. Jackson fell t his knees, and carefully removed the creature's claws from his neck. Jackson threw the dead creature to the ground and checked his wounds, strangely there were only letting out a small amount of blood.

"You alright Jackson?"

"Yeah, son of a bitch missed everything important."

"You need some bandages?"

"Nah, it's not bleeding, doesn't even hurt that much."

"What the hell was that thing?"

"I don't know, I was mainly focussing on the fact that it was EATING MY FACE!"

"You alright to go on?"

Jackson sat there for a few seconds, and then grabbed his rifle and got to his feet.

"Yeah, the sooner we get out of here the better."

* * *

Hey everyone, We've finally got our first bit of alien combat action, and it only took 7 chapters/

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I've written so far and look forward to feedback.


End file.
